The Canterbury Trail is littered with Geeks.

Author: BabyBlue

Unscripted is everything.

The reason why this video worked is 1) Ms. Payne’s wild laugh and 2) the fact that almost everything seemed spur of the moment. To use that tired but accurate word: authentic. Viewers increasingly want moments that speak to truths. I grew up in the days of reality television and while I would hardly say reality TV is “authentic,” the appeal in watching was that you’d find a moment of truth in the scenes-something that spoke to you. Ms. Payne telling viewers she wanted the mask all to herself and not for her kids was the truth-how many times have mothers around the world thought that as well? And her confession that she wanted to drive around with the mask on-how many times have you wanted to dare yourself to do something kooky. Those authentic moments forge an instant connection with the audience.

Know your audience.

One thing that Ms. Payne did perfectly well was she found exactly the right audience. In this instance, Facebook was the perfect platform to publish this video-their users are slightly older than on other platforms like Snapchat. Even better she was using a just-released tool-the Facebook “live” option. That made her video stand out more. Knowing where your audience lives and speaking to them on their platform is critical when building a brand.

Look for your own unique moment.

One aspect to this whole viral phenom that hasn’t been explored as much is how others were able to own the moment with Ms. Payne-and boost their own brands in the process. There’s a delicate line to walk here as you don’t want to come across as creepy or insincere but as a brand-whether individual or a company-finding a way to inject yourself into a national conversation or event is extremely important. Days after the video came out, other people started to post their reactions to the Chewbacca lady. People who were laboring in Youtube obscurity were suddenly racking up 20,000+ views just by reacting to something that was sweeping the country. Kohl’s took the opportunity to present Ms. Payne with more Star Wars gifts and posted a video of her receiving them which got an astounding 33 million views so far. Being a part of the national conversation in your own small way can reap tons of rewards for your brand.

The line outside the Leicester Square Theatre for the London opening of Star Wars in 1977.

Yesterday I saw a photo on Facebook that showed teenagers lining up to see the original Star Wars in 1977:

The caption read: “Your grandparents waiting in line for Star Wars, 1977.”

I spent many, many hours in line at the old Cinerama in downtown Honolulu where Star Wars played for a year when I was in high school. Back in those days the only way you could see a movie was to actually go to the movie theatre. And if you went to the movie theatre, you had to stand in line.

For a very long time.

We spent a lot of time standing in line —not just for Star Wars, but for Empire Strikes Back in 1980 —I was in line for the first sequel for six hours (inside) at the old Springfield Mall Theatre in Springfield, VA.

We didn’t just stand there, you know. We didn’t have cell phones, or tablets or laptops. There was no internet. We had books (this one was my favorite) and magazines and we’d take those with us for company.

It was in those long hours spent in line that met fellow Sleuthers, fellow fans and we spent those those hours discussing our theories, our ideas, our vision, what we liked, what we didn’t like, and in the process found friends. It was in those lines that the Star Wars community was born.

When Star Wars finally closed in the movie theatre, we’d have to wait until it appeared on one of the three (yes, only three) TV networks as a special movie presentation. You couldn’t rent it, buy it or download it. You had to wait. And that could take a very long time.

No wonder we all got VCRs. Once Star Wars was shown on TV, we taped it and then we could watch it over and over again and find the details we couldn’t see on the big screen.

But a significant way that fans were able to experience Star Wars when not in the theatre was to listen to the official Star Wars soundtrack by composer and conductor John Williams.

The entire film was scored with a soundtrack, the characters had their own themes, particular scenes had themes, there was the famous opening crawl theme and the final closing credits theme—and the original Star Wars record album had it all. We would put our album on our record players (visit Smithsonian or click here) and play it over and over and over again until we memorized all the music and could actually imagine in our minds what was happening on screen. It helped that we had all ready memorized all the dialogue.

The music told the story.

With John Williams at the helm of composing the soundtracks for all the Star Wars films, we have a cohesive work for the Star Wars anthology. And this is also very much the case for the new film, The Force Awakens.

There are mysteries galore to excite Star Wars Sleuths as we look for clues at what may be coming next. This past-time is also something the is particularly part of the Star Wars story.

There are not plot holes, they are mysteries, mysteries that should be solved in the future films. They are also ways of retelling the earlier stories and (when it’s done well) make the earlier films richer and deeper in their story telling—when it’s done well.

An example of fine sleuthing is looking at John Williams’ soundtrack for clues. One of the best sleuths in this field is David W. Collins. He worked for LucasArts as the lead sound designer and voice director with the video game division of the company.

One of the mysteries in The Force Awakens has to to do with the identify of Supreme Leader Snoke. We don’t know who he is, we aren’t told his backstory or where he came from. We know very little then what we see in the film. But what we do have is a soundtrack —or could that be two soundtracks?

Adam Underkofier gives us example of excellent Star Wars sleuthing in the video below. Taker a look and listen:

Even as we engage in this fun past-time of Star Wars Sleuthing, it is difficult to forget that moment sitting in a packed theatre at Springfield Mall when Darth Vader for the first time says to Luke Skywalker, “Obi Wan never told you what happened to your father.”

Looking for best practices for using social media by churches? Here are some policies, guidelines, and best practices used by some churches.

One of the major challenges in developing best practices for using social media is to know and understand landscape. It’s a landscape that is changing—and sometimes very quickly.

Another major challenge is to develop best practices that move the mission of the church responsibly forward. Be wise, be aware, be surprised.

Here is a selection of churches compiled by Justin Wise of Think Digital. Look over the polices, guidelines and best practices of these churches and think about how you can be proactive not only in curbing misuse of social media, but also how to strategically utilize these tools to move the mission of the church forward.